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Obama Faces Backlash Over New Corporate Powers In Secret Trade Deal

ttwtt78640 said:
Some good points there. Obviously a drug company wants to create a better treatment/prevention, not a cure. Just as it is better to build a car for $10K that lasts 10 years than to build a car for $15K that lasts for 20 years, but better to buy a car that costs 50% more and yet lasts twice as long. Unfortunately, we can only buy what is built (or make our own). ;)
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True, and when it comes to building our own medications, that is a bit risky.
 
j-mac said:
So who decides "incredible"? Shall we go by percentage, or gross dollar amount? What's fair? And why should fairness factor into it...We aren't a socialist country, at least not yet, and not totally.
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BINGO :0)

Of course we're not a socialist country, because healthcare and education would be free from cradle to grave. :0) That must seem barbaric to capitalists.

But point being, what is 'incredible' should be open to review, not simply determined in a backroom in secret. Obama lied his way into office claiming that he would be open and not resort to the backroom .. then immediately went into the backroom to make deals with Big Pharma .. and here he is doing it again.
 
BlackAsCoal said:
No one suggests that profit should not factor into the issue. What I said was incredible profit. There are a plethora of studies that demonstrate that incredible profit here cannot be justified .. and that's why this is done in secret.
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Who gets to decide when a profit becomes an incredible profit?

Does Microsoft make an incredible profit as well?
 
ttwtt78640 said:
It is copyright protection that allows the massive investment in developing the new drugs in the first place. If unable to "price gouge", for a limited period of time, then how is one expected to fund R&D for creating these new miracle drugs? If everyone is allowed to simply (and immediately) "reverse engineer" a new product, and crank out "low cost" clones of its own, then who is going to bother to fund the massive R&D effort to create the new product in the first place?
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To me, that is an excuse for corporations to gouge the customer. My wife has been taking Zyprexa for years. The cost of her prescription was $1,400.00 per month. A few months ago, Eli Lilly's patent ran out on the drug, and generic versions are now available. The cost for the generic version (Olanzapine) is now $29.00 per month.
 
BlackAsCoal said:
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration appears to have almost no international support for controversial new trade standards that would grant radical new political powers to corporations, increase the cost of prescription medications and restrict bank regulation, according to two internal memos obtained by The Huffington Post.

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New standards concerning access to key medicines appear to be equally problematic for many nations. The Obama administration is insisting on mandating new intellectual property rules in the treaty that would grant pharmaceutical companies long-term monopolies on new medications. As a result, companies can charge high prices without regard to competition from generic providers. The result, public health experts have warned, would be higher prices around the world, and lack of access to life-saving drugs in poor countries. Nearly every intellectual property issue in the November chart is opposed by a broad majority of the 12 nations. The December memo describes 119 "outstanding issues" that remain unresolved between the nations on intellectual property matters. The deal would obligate nations to develop many standards similar to those in the United States, where domestic prescription drug prices are much higher than costs in other nations.
Obama Faces Backlash Over New Corporate Powers In Secret Trade Deal

Obama is and has been nothing but a corporatist shill.

'Hope and change' my ass.
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The Republocrats in general love corporate capitalism.
 
Ikari said:
The Republocrats in general love corporate capitalism.
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Of course they do .. but will democrats take a stand against it now that it has found its way into their party?
 
danarhea said:
To me, that is an excuse for corporations to gouge the customer. My wife has been taking Zyprexa for years. The cost of her prescription was $1,400.00 per month. A few months ago, Eli Lilly's patent ran out on the drug, and generic versions are now available. The cost for the generic version (Olanzapine) is now $29.00 per month.
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Yep. But would that drug have even existed without that profit potential? What was the alternate treatment before the price drop? Many products, upon initial release, are very expensive yet later, once R&D costs are recovered, come down to cover production/marketing costs alone.
 
BlackAsCoal said:
Of course they do .. but will democrats take a stand against it now that it has found its way into their party?
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The Republocrats have no desire to take a stand against Corporate Capitalism, they've been working specifically to install, support, and proliferate it.
 
Ikari said:
The Republocrats have no desire to take a stand against Corporate Capitalism, they've been working specifically to install, support, and proliferate it.
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Neither do the democrats, the same hand feeds them. And BlackAsCoal, it's been that way since the democrats first formed. Google Tammany Hall and read a bit.
 
clownboy said:
Neither do the democrats, the same hand feeds them. And BlackAsCoal, it's been that way since the democrats first formed. Google Tammany Hall and read a bit.
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I think you need to reread what I wrote. You'll find that I've never disagreed with that sentiment.
 
Dittohead not! said:
Who gets to decide when a profit becomes an incredible profit?

Does Microsoft make an incredible profit as well?
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I would question any Microsoft hand in government as well if they needed subsidy and government protection.

But you're missing the question. If this is so necessary, why do it in the backroom?

11 Major Drug Companies Raked in $85 Billion Last Year, and Left Many to Die Who Couldn't Buy Their Pricey Drugs | Alternet

Pharmaceutical Companies Profits Reach 30 Percent, Author Says | The Lund Report

Obamacare Will Bring Drug Industry $35 Billion In Profits - Forbes

Big Pharma Pockets $711 Billion in Profits by Price-Gouging Taxpayers and Seniors | Health Care for America Now

As Drug Prices Continue To Soar, Big Pharma Reaped $84 Billion In Profits Last Year | ThinkProgress

Obviously, this is no secret.
 
Ikari said:
The Republocrats have no desire to take a stand against Corporate Capitalism, they've been working specifically to install, support, and proliferate it.
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I agree with you, but what are democrats going to do about it.

It's not enough to just point out the republicans.
 
BlackAsCoal said:
I agree with you, but what are democrats going to do about it.

It's not enough to just point out the republicans.
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Please read the words I wrote, you will find I have not disagreed.
 
BlackAsCoal said:
I would question any Microsoft hand in government as well if they needed subsidy and government protection.

But you're missing the question. If this is so necessary, why do it in the backroom?

11 Major Drug Companies Raked in $85 Billion Last Year, and Left Many to Die Who Couldn't Buy Their Pricey Drugs | Alternet

Pharmaceutical Companies Profits Reach 30 Percent, Author Says | The Lund Report

Obamacare Will Bring Drug Industry $35 Billion In Profits - Forbes

Big Pharma Pockets $711 Billion in Profits by Price-Gouging Taxpayers and Seniors | Health Care for America Now

As Drug Prices Continue To Soar, Big Pharma Reaped $84 Billion In Profits Last Year | ThinkProgress

Obviously, this is no secret.
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Obviously, it is not. So, what's the talk of "secret deals?" Everyone knows that the drug companies are enormously profitable, so there's no secret there. Everyone who has had to take a newly created medication knows that the cost is pretty high, so there's no secret there.

What is the alternative? No profit, no new drugs. Government limiting profits? Government funding research? It seems to me that the alternatives have as many pitfalls as the current system.
 
Ikari said:
Please read the words I wrote, you will find I have not disagreed.
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"Republocrats" went right past me brother.

You are indeed correct.
 
Dittohead not! said:
Obviously, it is not. So, what's the talk of "secret deals?" Everyone knows that the drug companies are enormously profitable, so there's no secret there. Everyone who has had to take a newly created medication knows that the cost is pretty high, so there's no secret there.

What is the alternative? No profit, no new drugs. Government limiting profits? Government funding research? It seems to me that the alternatives have as many pitfalls as the current system.
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There is nothing new or alternative about government funded research.

If any corporation needs government protection of its pricing, shouldn't that pricing be open to review and analysis?

Of course it should.
 
Ikari said:
I think you need to reread what I wrote. You'll find that I've never disagreed with that sentiment.
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Yes, but you did single out one party while leaving the other unmentioned. Why is that?
 
BlackAsCoal said:
There is nothing new or alternative about government funded research.

If any corporation needs government protection of its pricing, shouldn't that pricing be open to review and analysis?

Of course it should.
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It's not so much government protection of pricing as it is patent protection.
 
clownboy said:
Yes, but you did single out one party while leaving the other unmentioned. Why is that?
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Please read what I wrote and you will discover I have not.
 
BlackAsCoal said:
BINGO :0)

Of course we're not a socialist country, because healthcare and education would be free from cradle to grave. :0) That must seem barbaric to capitalists.

But point being, what is 'incredible' should be open to review, not simply determined in a backroom in secret. Obama lied his way into office claiming that he would be open and not resort to the backroom .. then immediately went into the backroom to make deals with Big Pharma .. and here he is doing it again.
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I feel kinda bad for progressives that are only now figuring that out. But you're right, Obama is a political opportunist, and an empty suit. The question is who's getting rich of of his buffoonery? Answer, the same crooks that did off of his predecessors.
 
j-mac said:
I feel kinda bad for progressives that are only now figuring that out. But you're right, Obama is a political opportunist, and an empty suit. The question is who's getting rich of of his buffoonery? Answer, the same crooks that did off of his predecessors.
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The same crooks that got rich when Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush were in office.

Political party has nothing to do with it.

We exist in a plutocracy.
 
VanceMack said:
Obviously you guys are all just hatin on Obama because he is black.
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The folks crying about this deal are the same ones that advocate for more government.
 
BlackAsCoal said:
The same crooks that got rich when Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush were in office.

Political party has nothing to do with it.

We exist in a plutocracy.
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Y'all want more government, so there you go...
 
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